
A trout fisherman with an anthropology degree made renewable fuel ordinary enough to buy beside gasoline. Two decades later, the operating knowledge behind that experiment became the center of an $833 million judgment - and a test of what an innovator truly owns.
The former pump-maintenance business now connects tills, stockrooms and head offices. Its next test is making the forecourt work just as hard while drivers wait for a charge.
A real-estate-minded roll-up found its sharpest advantage in a 50-year-old deep-fried burrito. Now Yesway is testing whether local devotion, modern stores and disciplined data can travel together.
How three El Paso grocery stores became a 29-country, 149,000-employee machine for selling gasoline, coffee and the two-minute stop.